Basil Newby Tells His Story in Basil! Bitches In Stitches

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One of Blackpool’s most recognisable entertainment figures has put his extraordinary life into print. Basil Newby’s autobiography, Basil! Bitches In Stitches: The Extraordinary Life and Times of an Irrepressible Blackpool Icon, was published on 1 October 2026, offering his own account of a life spent at the heart of Blackpool’s entertainment and LGBTQ+ communities. Within days of publication the book was receiving prominent attention in his home town, appearing on the front page of the Blackpool Gazette on 5 October 2026.

The autobiography takes Newby back to a childhood in Blackpool in which show business was already part of everyday life. His parents ran a theatrical boarding house, meaning visiting performers were among the characters he encountered while growing up. It proved an appropriate introduction to the world in which he would eventually make his name. Rather than following the traditional route into Blackpool entertainment as a performer, Newby became an entrepreneur, promoter and venue owner, developing businesses which helped reshape the resort’s nightlife and provided increasingly visible spaces for its LGBTQ+ community.

A pivotal moment came in 1979, when Newby established The Flamingo, beginning an association with Blackpool’s gay nightlife that would continue for more than four decades. He went on to develop a succession of venues including The Flying Handbag, Pepe’s Bar and Basil’s, before achieving perhaps his greatest success with the creation of Funny Girls in 1994. Together, his venues helped transform Blackpool’s LGBTQ+ nightlife and made Newby one of the resort’s most recognisable entertainment entrepreneurs.

Rather than retelling the complete history of those venues, Bitches In Stitches promises the story from the other side of the curtain – Newby’s own memories of the personalities, battles, friendships and sometimes extraordinary circumstances behind his public career. Among the subjects publicised with the book are encounters with figures including Paul O’Grady, Grace Jones, Boy George and Bea Arthur, alongside stories involving many of the less famous but equally colourful characters who passed through Blackpool’s entertainment world.

There is a more serious history running through the autobiography too. Newby built his businesses during a period when homosexuality and gay venues could still attract considerable hostility. The book recalls the opposition he encountered from authorities, including accusations that he was “promoting homosexuality” and claims that he was an “unfit and improper person”. Seen from the perspective of 2026, those episodes help illustrate just how much social attitudes have changed during Newby’s career. Venues which once faced suspicion and opposition ultimately became established parts of Blackpool’s entertainment industry, while Newby himself went from battling official resistance to receiving an MBE for his contribution to business and the LGBTQ+ community.

The timing of the autobiography is particularly appropriate. Newby has recently stepped away from the entertainment empire with which he became synonymous, bringing one of the longest and most colourful careers in modern Blackpool nightlife towards its conclusion. Blackpool Timeline has covered that part of the story separately in The End of an Era – Basil Newby MBE Sells Blackpool’s Iconic Funny Girls, including the development of Funny Girls, its move to the former Odeon Cinema and Newby’s decision to retire.

Basil Newby from Poulton-Le-Fylde is made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by the Prince of Wales during an Investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace, central London.. 21 March 2014. Photographed by Jonathan Brady. © Alamy

Bitches In Stitches therefore provides something different. It gives Newby the opportunity to look back across the whole journey himself, from the Blackpool boy growing up around theatrical lodgers to the businessman whose venues became part of the identity of the resort. His career coincided with profound changes in Blackpool nightlife and in wider attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community, meaning that his memories also document a piece of the town’s social history that might otherwise easily be lost.

The appearance of the autobiography on the front page of the Blackpool Gazette on 5 October 2026, just four days after publication, seems particularly fitting. Basil Newby has generated plenty of headlines during his career – through new venues, spectacular shows, controversy, campaigning and an ability to attract attention that has rarely deserted him. This time, however, the headline marks something rather different: Basil finally telling the story himself.